Lions Club New Club Committee member David Hubman presenting information on the organization to the City of Norwich Common Council during the February 21 common council meeting. The Norwich Lions Club disbanded last summer, and now Hubman is looking to restart the branch once again. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

NORWICH — After the dissolution of the Norwich Lions Club in the summer of 2022, the Lions Club District 20-Y is looking to restart the group.

The district covers Central New York and is made up of 52 Lions Clubs that exist to serve the needs of their respective communities. Their service work covers five main areas: vision, diabetes, hunger, environment, and childhood cancer. However, they also look to their community for what types of service is needed in that area.

In order to restart the Norwich Lions Club, former Lions Club District 20-Y Governor and New Club Committee member David Hubman said they would just need five dedicated people.

"We can start a club with five members. It’s called a club branch, and they do everything. They do their own service projects, they do their own fundraisers," Hubman explained.

Until the branch reaches 20 members, however, they would need what's called a guiding club, which would mentor the group and help them get started.

"We’d like to have 20 to 25 to start the club, because then they can get their own charter, they can have their own accounts, they can do all that kind of stuff," said Hubman. "And what we’re looking for is service-minded people who have energy and want to serve their community."

"If we have five really energized, excited people, five will become 20 very quickly," he added.

His goal is to charter the Norwich Lions Club by the end of this year.

Those interested in joining the Norwich Lions Club can contact Hubman at 315-240-7112 or dhubman61@gmail.com. Those individuals will later be contacted about a future informational meeting Hubman is currently planning.

Norwich Lions Club meetings will be tailored to the availability of members and the needs of the community. According to Hubman, each club is able to set how frequently they meet, what they will cover at the meetings, and what service projects they will do.

"It depends on the club. Some clubs meet twice a month, some clubs meet once a month. It just depends on how the club decides they want to organize themselves," said Hubman, adding that the Endicott Lions Club, where he is a member, opts to meet twice a month.

"One meeting a month is our business meeting where we take care of, you know, if people are requesting financial help or support, we take care of that," he continued. "The second meeting of the month we try to do a program where we have a guest speaker come and talk about diabetes or talk about our foundation or talk about things that are going on in their community."

Members of any age are welcome to join the Lions Club. Hubman said the Greene Lions Club has many parents who got involved and support local youth programs through the group.

"The Greene Lions Club has a younger club, because they have a park, a Lions park, there and they support all the little league programs and the youth soccer and things like that. So there’s a lot of draw of the parents who like to do those kinds of things," he explained. "But they also have folks there that are in their 80s. So it just depends on if you want to serve, and how willing you are to serve your community."

Projects are funded through grant opportunities and fundraising by the Lions Clubs. Other examples of service projects completed by clubs include creating memorial parks and botanical gardens, vision screenings for children in local schools and Head Start programs, and donating beds to local children in need.

"There’s another program where if you collect 500 pounds of recyclable plastic and you send that to Trex, they will send you a recycled bench to donate and put anywhere in the city or the village that you want," Hubman said.

He also emphasized that whatever money is raised by the Norwich Lions Club will be put right back into service projects that help the Norwich community.

"Every dollar that’s raised through a fundraiser with Lions goes back into the community. Our administrative costs and that kind of thing are paid through dues," he said. "The fundraising money goes right back into the community."

More information on Lions Clubs can be found at LionsClubs.org.